A vegetarian's switch to a more sustainable life.

“Your influence is spreading!!”

Let’s take a minute to enjoy a few things: my stats test being over (and I think I did reasonably well), the first snow of the season and the company/kindness of friends.

Horrible picture, but the excitement was there.

The last two days of my life have been filled with studying for statistics. Basically, if something didn’t involve hypothesis testing or t-tables in some way, it was unimportant to me. Instead of pulling an all-nighter to study like I did for my previous exam (bad idea), I worked hard the last two days, went to bed at a reasonable time and was well-fed, well-rested and well-caffeinated before my exam. My professor pulled me aside the other day and said he enjoys having me in class because I am always really expressive with my face and so he can “tell when something clicks or when something doesn’t and uses my reaction to gauge how the class is feeling.” This isn’t the first time someone has told me this. So, I guess he could read my face like a book during the exam yesterday and when I turned it in, he asked: “So was that better than last time?” Much.

So it was a nice invitation when one of my best friends suggested we get some Mexican food to celebrate being done with my Stats test and her Spanish test. At dinner, she surprised me with one of the most thoughtful, adorable, awesome gifts in the entire world:

“Time and Relative Dimension in Sticky Notes.” I am obsessed!

It was nice to unwind and laugh a bit, especially during this crazy time in the semester. I got home, popped in a movie and started working on the newspaper while enjoying a surprise a friend gave me a few days ago:

Vegan peanut butter cookies….so delicious.

At a meeting the other day, one of my friends came in with a bag of peanut butter cookies and said she made them for a friend who was also vegan but had a ton of leftover dough and brought me some. It was SO thoughtful and kind — and the cookies were phenomenal.

Lastly, one of my friends on Facebook shared a link with me about Beyonce and Jay Z going vegan…WHAT?! Check out the story on Vanity Fair’s site. On his blog [and the layout is really cool, too!], Jay Z posted two days ago about how, in a few words, he and his wife are going vegan for 22 days at a meaningful time in their lives as a “spiritual and physical cleanse.” He talked a lot about the significance of the number 22 and said how he is unsure what he will do when the 22 days are up: stay vegan? Semi-vegan? So many opportunities wait for him.

My friend excitedly posted it on my wall saying: “GIRL!!! Your influence is spreading!!” which also made my day.

Aside: if you tell me you thought of me when you see anything vegan, “The Great Gatsby,” “Sherlock,” or “Doctor Who” related, you can consider us to be best friends and I probably want to hug you a lot.

Anyway, I thought that was incredible. Everyone’s experience with vegan/plant-based is so unique and Jay Z is absolutely no exception to that. He has the privilege of a lot of monetary goods and support and thus will have access to higher quality vegan foods or even cooks, if he were to choose to do so. But let’s focus on what’s important here: a grown man taking control of his own spirituality and well-being and choosing to make an extreme change in his life and, all the while, keeping his mind open to the idea of change [maybe even a permanent one] but being realistic and choosing to evaluate his progress after he reaches his benchmark date.

Hmm…..sounds familiar.

What can I say? Jay Z is brilliant and I have no doubt he and Beyonce will find so much happiness, wonder, joy and enlightenment in going vegan. Even if the pair don’t stay vegan, that is their personal choice that works best for them. It’s so admirable that they are making the switch and secure enough in their decision to do so that they are sharing their excitement with the world. I can’t wait to read all about their own progress and what they learn during their 22 day spiritual journey.

I’m just a bit over 100 days in and can say I am still learning each and every day. People often ask me if anything has changed: have I gained/lost weight? Does dairy repulse me in the same way meat does? Am I offended when people eat dairy around me? Do I think I’ll ever switch back? Is being vegan hard?

I don’t weigh myself because I know unhealthy, obsessive habits can stem from that. Your weight is your relationship with gravity. That’s it. The only person who needs to know my weight is my physician. I go based on how I feel…and I have never felt better in the physical sense. I exercise a lot and I’m a vegan, so I’m happy with my health.

Yes, the longer I go without dairy, the more unappetizing it sounds. This is true with anything.

No, I’m not offended if you eat meat or dairy around me. Don’t push your beliefs on me or judge me for my choices and I am happy to return the favor.

No, I have no plans to ever eat dairy or meat again in my life. Not a single chance.

Being vegan is a process. It’s about the process…not the goal. It’s a challenge sometimes, but it’s worth it for me, for animals and for the Earth. It’s a spiritual journey that never ends.

It seemed right this morning to have a citrus-y burst of summer on the first [scant] snow of the season. I was THIS close to doing lemon coconut oats and it kind of happened anyway. These oats are delicious as it — but VERY tart since you use the juice from one whole lemon — but after a few bites, I threw on a few flakes of unsweetened shredded coconut to cut the sourness because life is short.

Lemon Poppyseed oatmeal with coconut…bringing some warmth into this chilly apartment.

This recipe is EASY and really tasty so I would recommend it. Pro tip: poppy seeds can be found in the spice aisle of the grocery store. I won’t tell you how long it took me to finally locate these in the store. Hint: it was a long time.

So what’s next? Well, I have a few meetings today and some homework in between. Tomorrow is the last day of regular classes of the entire semester [throws confetti] so after I go to the only two classes I have tomorrow, I am going to spend my weekend finishing up the last few items on my to-do list, preparing for finals, writing for school, designing and writing some more. I’ll be back either some time this weekend OR Tuesday night, depending on how much work gets done this weekend.